Holiday gift program gets a makeover and investment through Start Garden

There is a personal backstory to the Elf Factory’s tag line: “a handmade holiday school program specializing in gifts that parents don’t have to pretend to like!”  

Kirsten Field, founder of the Elf Factory, explains the inspiration behind her new venture. “I volunteered at my kids’ schools and I was disgusted at the products for the holiday workshop. I knew there had to be something better.”

Describing herself as a “stay-at-home-mom getting back into the workforce,” Field submitted her idea to Start Garden and received $5,000 in funding after she ran one pilot program with an elementary school. Field says she will use the Start Garden funding for  customer development experiments with five new schools and ultimately try to determine if the idea is scalable. “Our goal is to get a 75 percent participation rate at the schools.”

Operationally, Field says that once a school decides to go ahead with the Elf Factory program, she partners with a parent organization and then provides all the craft materials  order forms, timelines, online training videos, and other tools they would need to run an Elf Factory at their school. The concept is designed to for simplicity (approximately four minutes to make a present), affordability, and a much higher quality product than existing holiday programs.

Currently, Field is the only full-time employee but she has four part-time staff that help with assembling the craft boxes.

To learn more, you can follow on Facebook for Elf Factory updates or check out their website at www.elffactory.com.

Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor